Log in

a wandering star

Cat update

Good news: after three days at the vet, Cole is much better. He's keeping down food and yowling his dislike of accommodations. They found out what made him sick, and it is very treatable.

Bad news: It's giardia, and all four cats have it. Both males have lost weight. More bad news: the vet has been getting so many cases of giardia coming in lately, she thinks it's in the water supply. Cats that just get bottled water seem to be doing much better. I am wondering if I need to be drinking bottled water myself, as I know I could catch giardia too.

So if you drink from a clean glass out of your tap you're likely to be fine, but drinking from your hose that's been sitting on the ground is a Bad Idea.

Also, a study of Texas daycare facilities showed that between 25 and 30 percent of the children were infected at any one time. Suggests that avoiding children could be even more helpful than avoiding city water...

Thank you! I was not feeling good about having a civic water supply with giardia. Seemed like something that should have been in the news, no?

OTOH, we've been dithering for a while now about buying one of those bottled water chiller dispensers because we'd both drink lots more water if an instant supply of cold, better tasting water were handy. This seemed like a fine excuse to get one.

Just something to consider if you switch to a bottled water system...At the age of 29, I got cavities for the first time. And I got 6 of them. In trying to figure out why so suddenly I got a big bunch of cavities, the dentist asked me, "Have you recently switched to drinking primarily bottled water?" And I had. We were getting bottled water delivered to the house. So no fluoride from the water I was drinking. I switched back to drinking Brita filter water, and also started using a fluoride rinse, and I haven't had a cavity since.

Thanks so much.

I know this isn't pertaining to the post, but I just wanted to say thank you so much for being all sneaky with Amy (La_Directora) and pitching in to help me replace my stolen camera. This week I went to B&H and found a suitable replacement and have been putting it to good use, thanks to you.